AEG Attorney Takes The Stand For 2nd Day In Jackson Wrongful Death Trial

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LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The attorney who negotiated Conrad Murray’s contract for AEG Live testified on Wednesday about the terms under which he was commissioned to work for the late pop star.

Attorney Kathy Jorrie was called to the stand by Jackson family attorneys for a second day of testimony in the wrongful death trial stemming from a lawsuit filed by Michael Jackson’s mother against concert promoting giant AEG.

Jorrie was cross-examined by Brian Panish, who brought jurors’ attention to a six-page contract LAPD officers found in Murray’s BMW.

Drawn up by attorneys for AEG Live, it spells out the agreement between the firm and Murray over the medical care he agreed to provide Michael Jackson while the singer prepared for his ill-fated comeback concert series.

As KCAL9’s Randy Paige reports, police noticed Murray signed the agreement the day before Jackson died, but the signature lines for the pop star and for an AEG representative remain blank.

AEG maintains the contract was never fully executed and therefore it is not legally binding.

“The draft you sent Dr. Murray said he would be paid retroactively from May 1st?” Panish asked Jorrie.

“Yes,” she replied.

Jackson family attorneys argue the contract was binding even if it wasn’t signed by all parties, because AEG had agreed to pay Murray for his services under the terms of the contract for more than a month before Michael Jackson died.

The next witness expected to take the stand is This Is It co-director Kenny Ortega.

Ortega had been called earlier in the case but had to leave before finishing his testimony.

AEG attorneys say next week they hope to call Debbie Rowe to the stand – the mother of two of Jackson’s three children.

Katherine Jackson is suing AEG for what she claims was negligence in the hiring and supervision of Murray while Michael Jackson was under his care.

The physician is currently serving a four-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter in connection to the late star’s death. He was convicted in 2011 of administering the fatal dose of anesthetic propofol that killed Jackson in 2009.